MUMSACKS

Molly Gunn - 23 Jul 14

Rucksacks or backpacks – depending on which side the atlantic you come from – came over a bit cool a year ago, and this summer they’re positively everywhere… so much so that they’ve usurped the cavernous leather handbag, the midi cross-body bag, various cotton totes, or that Phil-and-Teds bum-bag-thing (I’ve seen some mums wearing) to be the ultimate mother-bag of choice.

Rucksacks work for us mothers on numerous levels. So, we’ll call them Mumsacks or Mumpacks (why not, we love word-meshing). First and foremost they get style points which is a big tick to those of us that crave some fashionability, and they come in multi-guises: ‘safe’ rucksacks in black, pretty floral ones, zebra-print ones, or you can go down the 90s tourist route… and we say, go down this route. A lot.

In fact, even kids’ rucksacks suddenly seem stacked with a bit of coolness. See Herschel. Is a coincidence that these days we’re more than happy to carry your child’s rucksack on their behalf for the school run? Even if it’s got Lightning McQueen on it?

Maybe the joy of rucksacks is that they leave you COMPLETELY HANDS FREE. This is actually far more important than point one, in a practical sense. Because, feeling hands free and unencumbered when with children, can make a mother feel like a bit like Mary Poppins, in a ‘watch me I can do anything kind of way’ – ie: clean a toddler’s nose, carry a baby, eat an ice cream, chat on the phone and run for a bus all at the same time. All the stuff we usually do, but without the added extra of an over-flowing, annoying bag falling off your arm and clanking against your hip.

The next big winner is that it has lots of space and handy pockets. You know, so you can fill it with the ENDLESS stuff you need, the Mum Kit. Like your other handbag, the one you usually carry, the one which you have no idea what’s at the bottom and you’re too afraid to find out – half eaten rice cakes, broken boxes of Sunmaid raisins, dirty wet wipes, a shoe, plastic toys, moulding croissant etc. The one you can easily loose your phone, keys and purse in, which are actually the only items you need from it on a daily basis. That one.

With rucksacks, they have so much space that anything is possible, and you can start off being particularly organised by assigning different pockets to specific uses. The only hassle is getting to all this stuff when it’s on your back. If you’re on the move, we suggest only doing this when it is absolutely necessary or enlisting an eager child to retrieve items while you crouch down and bark orders. Turn it into a game, like everything else. Left a bit, right a bit, stick your hand right to the bottom, NOT THAT FAR, etc.

And, on a final note, remember that a new bag means one thing – a clean slate. Invest in a new rucksack and it could be the fresh start you’ve been waiting for. That handbag-full-of-crap that you’ve been carting around for the last year… well, you can either take the time to lovingly clean it out. OR, you can just treat yourself to a new Mumsack, shove full handbag to the back of your cupboard in ignorant bliss, and deal with it another day. We won’t tell anyone, promise.

Just put your new Mumsack on, and start again…

Read Molly’s other posts, here…      

Molly Gunn

Molly Gunn is the Curator of Goodness at Selfish Mother, a site she created for likeminded women in 2013. Molly has been a journalist for over 15 years, starting out on fashion desks at The Guardian, The Telegraph & ES Magazine before going freelance in 2006 to write for publications including Red, Stella, Grazia, Net-A-Porter and ELLE. She now edits Selfish Mother and creates #GoodTees which are sold via TheFMLYStore.com and John Lewis and have so far raised £650K for charity. Molly is mother to Rafferty, 5, Fox, 3 and baby Liberty. Molly is married to Tom, aka music producer Tee Mango and founder of Millionhands. They live, work and play in Somerset.

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